If you have watched native bees at all, you have seen this little bee–even if you didn’t know the genus. Many days, this bee has been the most common bee I’ve seen. When flying, it reminds me a bit of a fat medium-sized ant. Three characteristics give the identity of this bee away; they are small, about the size of a plumped-up rice grain; they have a bright yellow marking on their face; and, they are shiny, metallic, and don’t have a lot of hairs.
Many other bees are small, but few have this distinctive metallic-greenish coloring.
The Great Sunflower Project has a nice summary of the characteristics of this bee along with a photo.
Sam Droege, a Biologist at USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, has made a wonderful, easy-to-understand slide presentation on native bees. With Sam's permission, I have linked to it on this site. Just click on Bees on the Navigation bar at the top and scroll down to the Guide to the Apidae Part 1. The Ceratina are on slide 30. Here's a You Tube video of a Ceratina entering a hollow stem. This video was shot by Dr. Kevin Matteson of The Great Pollinator Project (www.greatpollinatorproject.org).
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